The online population across Asia could be enjoying slightly faster access to some internet services today with the news that Google has switched on a new high-speed undersea cable system, bringing speedier connectivity to Google services in the region. To recap, back in 2014, a six-member consortium of companies consisting of Google, China Mobile International, China Telecom Global, Global Transit, KDDI, and Singtel unveiled plans to create a 9,000km transpacific undersea cable system spanning from Oregon on the west coast of the U.S.

News 18 — Washington: An undersea cable backed by Google and Asian companies aimed at boosting trans-Pacific broadband was put into service this week, the consortium announced. The 5,600-mile (9,000-kilometer) FASTER Cable System is aimed at meeting the growing demand for broadband Internet connections between North America and Asia.

News 18 — Washington: An undersea cable backed by Google and Asian companies aimed at boosting trans-Pacific broadband was put into service this week, the consortium announced. The 5,600-mile (9,000-kilometer) FASTER Cable System is aimed at meeting the growing demand for broadband Internet connections between North America and Asia.

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Telecom Asia — The FASTER consortium has announced the launch of its new trans-Pacific subsea cable system. Construction of the 9,000km system linking Japan and the west coast of the US has been completed an the cable is starting service today. The six FASTER consortium members are Singtel, China Mobile International, China Telecom Global, Global Transit, KDDI and Google.

9TO5 Google — Android Pay has been very slowly making its way around the world and today the service has finally arrived in Asia — or at least for those in Singapore. Users in Singapore are able to download and activate Android Pay on their devices right now as long as their bank is compatible with the service.

Times of India — Google together with Lookout, a mobile security company, has successfully taken down the auto-rooting malware app that was said to be silently rootingAndroid device and install other apps without user permission.

Forbes — After launching in both the United States and the United Kingdom, Android Pay, Google’s contactless smartphone payment solution is finally making landfall in Asia. Singapore will be the first Asian market to gain access to Android Pay with Singaporeans able to load and MasterCard credit and debit cards from six banks including DBS and Standard Chartered onto their Android smartphones.

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Wired — This week, a new undersea fiber-optic cable funded by Google and a consortium of Asian telecommunications companies went online. Dubbed Faster, the cable stretches about 5,600 miles from Oregon to two landing points in Japan. It’s the fastest, highest capacity trans-Pacific undersea cable ever built. It can theoretically deliver as much as 60 terabits per second of bandwidth—more than half the total bandwidth available between the U.S West Coast and Asia at the end of 2015, according to telecommunications consulting firm Telegeography.

Asia Times — Are you a Bollywood movie buff and want to know about the Kapoors or the Bachchans? Google India has come up with a new and exciting way of answering your queries on films, actors, song lyrics, trivia, trailers, screening times and more with contextual answers.

Hindustan Times — Facebook, Microsoft and Google have agreed to work with Bangladesh government over “inappropriate contents” on the Internet, the Parliament was told today amidst a series of brutal killings by Islamists of secular bloggers and minorities.

BBC — India has rejected Google’s plans to collect images for its Street View service in the country after objections from security agencies. Officials told the BBC there were concerns that the service would compromise the country’s security. Google Street View collects high definition images to give its users 360 degree views of streets, tourist spots, hills and rivers.

MIS Asia — co-founder and CEO Tony Fadell is leaving the company, a move that may mark a shift in strategy for one of the early stars of the Internet of Things. Fadell founded the startup, which makes connected thermostats and other smart-home gear, in 2011 with co-founder Matt Rogers. Google bought Nest in 2014.

Times of India — SAN FRANCISCO: Microsoft has joined other tech giants working to deliver the internet in remote parts of the world, although it’s taking a smaller-scale approach than some of its rivals. Google and Facebook are pursuing expensive, ambitious efforts to extend Internet access through networks of satellites, drones and high-altitude balloons.

Tech in Asia — There’s a US$200 billion opportunity in Southeast Asia for tech entrepreneurs and investors, according to research by Google and investment firm Temasek. The two industry heavyweights revealed their findings during the E-conomy SEA event in Singapore today. A slideshow containing key conclusions from the research is embedded below and also available to view here.

Bloomberg — Southeast Asia’s Internet economy, spanning online shopping to games and advertising, will surge sixfold to about $200 billion in the next decade, according to joint research by Google Inc. and Temasek Holdings Pte.

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Times of India — SAN FRANCISCO: Google has rolled out a Spaces application tailored to let users easily share content and commentary, group-messaging style, on any topics they wish. “With Spaces, it’s simple to find and share articles, videos and images without leaving the app, since Google Search , YouTube , and Chrome come built in,” product director Luke Wroblewski said in a blog post.

Digi Times — Google has announced that new Chromebooks rolled out by its notebook partners will start supporting Google Play, a move which is likely to substantially ramp up shipments of Chromebooks. Taiwan-based notebook vendor Acer and Asustek Computer are expected to release soon new Chromebooks with an integrated platform combining Chrome OS and Google Play.

9to5 Google — Hugo Barra, a former VP at Google and now Vice President of Global Operations at Xiaomi,has today announced on Twitter that he — or at least the Chinese firm — will be back atGoogle’s upcoming developer conference… While he did confirm that Xiaomi will indeed “be a part of Google I/O”, he only tweeted an image to hint at what will be announced.

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Tech in Asia — Dropbox, Google Drive, and other international cloud storage providers have long been blocked in China – and now a number of domestic storage services are facing a similar fate. Vdisk, KuaiPan, and UC net disk – run by Sina, Xunlei, and Alibaba, respectively – have filled the gap left by the government’s censoring of international options, but now each one is partially or fully closing down.

Times of India — NEW DELHI: Cold response from MNCs like Google to India’s security concerns is seen as a prime reason for the proposed legislation to regulate mapping of the country, a move that critics call “return of the Licence Raj” and “digital nationalism”. A draft of Geospatial Information Regulation Bill, released last week seeking public comments, says anyone mapping India by a satellite or aerial platform will need a licence from a government “security vetting authority”.

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Telecom Asia — IBM currently leads the SaaS cloud service market, while Amazon leads the global cloud infrastructure market (IaaS, CaaS, PaaS) in 2015, according to a new report by research firm IHS. According to the report, Salesforce ranked the second in the SaaS cloud service market with 8% of market share, while Microsoft and Oracle had 6% and 3%. SAP had just 2% share in the global SaaS cloud service market.

Networks Asia — Amazon Web Services (AWS) continues to dominate the cloud infrastructure services market with a 31% worldwide market share, dwarfing the chasing pack, according to new Q1 data from Synergy Research Group. The big three followers – Microsoft, IBM and Google – in aggregate accounted for 22% of the market, while the next 20 top-ranked cloud providers accounted for another 27%.

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IT News — Security researchers have uncovered a bug in Google Android devices that could leave potentially millions of smartphone and tablets manufactured over the last five years open to attack. FireEye’s Mandiant security research team discovered the exploit last December but went public with its findings for the first time today.

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Telecom Asia — India’s Idea Cellular is preparing to launch carrier billing for the Google Play store, bringing the capability to India for the first time for Android devices. A Google representative confirmed to India’s NDTV that the company is in the process of implementing carrier billing to Google Play for Idea Cellular customers.

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Mashable — The Indian government has proposed a bill that will require companies like Google to get a license to offer and publish maps in the country. If it becomes a law, then anyone who create maps ‘incorrectly’ can be fined millions of rupees or imprisoned. The draft Geospatial Information Regulation Bill, 2016, says that “no person shall depict, disseminate, publish or distribute any wrong or false topographic information of India including international boundaries through internet platforms or online services or in any electronic or physical form”.

Digi Times — Overall smartphone share of the global handsets market is slowing as mobile phone (or feature phone) sales show some resilience through local brands in emerging markets. While ABI Research finds major China-based vendors are continuing to witness solid volume growth, the market region could be on the cusp of a change as Google Android regains momentum and fights back against Android Open Source Project (AOSP) devices.

Digi Times — Sales of high-end smartphones are decelerating, affecting orders for ICs and other parts and components, according to sources from Taiwan-based IC design houses. Apple and Samsung have both seen disappointing sales of their flagship models while Huawei has reportedly cut its 2016 shipment goal to 120-130 million units from 140 million due to poor sales of its high-end models, said the sources.

Times of India — BHUBANESWAR: After Mumbai Central, RailTel, the telecom arm of the Indian Railways today launched high-speed public free WiFi service at Bhubaneswar railway station in partnership with Google. Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu accompanied by Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha, launched the WiFi service which will benefit 1.4 lakh visitors at Bhubaneswar station daily.

Tech in Asia — Google wants to make the world’s information universally accessible, and that means both the child in rural India and the tech geek in San Francisco have equal access to the internet’s wealth. At the Tech in Asia Singapore 2016 conference, Google’s vice-president of product management, Caesar Sengupta, broke down how the company has been working towards the goal of “reaching the next billion users.”

RTN Asia — If you’re a regular user of Google Maps for navigation, you might want to update the app quickly before you head out. The latest version of Google News includes spoken warnings about traffic conditions, Google said. Till now, Google used to color code traffic conditions, with red indicating severe congestion and slow moving traffic.